Provides a global perspective on drought prediction and management and a synthesis of the recent state of knowledge. Covers a wide range of topics from essential concepts and advanced techniques for forecasting and modeling drought to societal impacts, consequences, and planning Presents numerous case studies with different management approaches from different regions and countries. Addresses how climate change impacts drought, the increasing challenges associated with managing drought, decision making, and policy implications. Includes contributions from hundreds of experts around the world.

Our Earth is considered as a natural system which organizes and controls itself. However, the present scale of anthropogenic activity is unprecedented in the history of mankind compelling the intelligentia to ponder over the scientific causes of the problems, processes and sustainable and pragmatic solutions. The current rate of resource use and consumption pattern are depleting the planet's finite resources and damaging life-supporting ecosystems. A large number of toxic substances are increasingly found in air, water, soil, and flora and fauna. We are in the midst of a period of increasing interconnected and complex global challenges that seek action across temporal and spatial scales, diverse sectors, and concerted efforts from global citizens. The environment on account of human's action has been experiencing imbalances and ecological catastrophe. Environmental issues like global climate change, biodiversity loss, the rapid depletion of natural resources, degradation of global commons, stratospheric ozone depletion have been restricting the safe operating space and transgressing the planetary boundaries endangering the existence of human societies. The global environmental problems if not scientifically managed may end up in the civilizational collapse. Nevertheless, the underlying commonality among these environmental issues is interrelatedness, complexity, and difficulty in identifying and implementing solutions. The global environmental challenges can be managed by adopting sustainable green technologies which dovetails the principles of environmental sustainability with social and ecological sustainability. Green growth is construed as a new development paradigm that sustains economic growth while at the same time ensuring environmental sustainability.

This book challenges mainstream Western IEJ (intergenerational environmental justice) in a manner that privileges indigenous philosophies and highlights the value these philosophies have for solving global environmental problems. Divided into three parts, the book begins by examining the framing of Western liberal environmental, intergenerational and indigenous justice theory and reviews decolonial theory. Using contemporary case studies drawn from the courts, film, biography and protests actions, the second part explores contemporary Maori and Aboriginal experiences of values-conflict in encounters with politics and law. It demonstrates the deep ontological rifts between the philosophies that inform Maori and Aboriginal intergenerational justice (IJ) and those of the West that underpin the politics and law of these two settler states. Existing Western IEJ theories, across distributional, communitarian, human rights based and the capabilities approach to IJ, are tested against obligations and duties of specific Maori and Aboriginal iwi and clans. Finally, in the third part, it explores the ways we relate to time and across generations to create regenerative IJ. Challenging the previous understanding of the conceptualization of time, it posits that it is in how we relate-human to human, human to nonhuman, nonhuman to human-that robust conceptualization of IEJ emerges. This volume presents an imagining of IEJ which accounts for indigenous norms on indigenous terms and explores how this might be applied in national and international responses to climate change and environmental degradation. Demonstrating how assumptions in mainstream justice theory continue to colonise indigenous people and render indigenous knowledge invisible, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental and intergenerational philosophy, political theory, indigenous studies and decolonial studies, and environmental humanities more broadly.

* The real strength of the book lies in setting out an alternative vision to the current practice in economics, especially in light of the re-evaluation being forced by COVID-19 in addition to the climate crisis. * Offers an important challenge to the current corporate sustainability gospel expressed in recent books. * Written by a well-recognised commentator on the environment and economics. * The book specifically connects global environmental imperatives with their microeconomic implications for businesses and households, which makes it utterly unique.

This book addresses why, whether and how the existing legal framework on water management in China could make climate change adaptation a mainstream issue. The book uses a table to illustrate the distinctions and similarities between IWRM and water-centered adaptation to analyze the possibilities of mainstreaming adaptation. The new water-planning processes and EIA are also illustrated in the form of figures showing the differences after factoring in adaptation considerations. Interviews with water managers to obtain their perception and attitudes towards climate change adaptation offer new perspectives for readers. The adaptation- mainstreaming approach, which finds a way to balance various interests and tasks, will arouse the interests of those readers who argue that climate change is only one of the issues challenging water management, and that poverty reduction, environmental protection and living standard improvement are even more important. Readers will also be interested to discover that the adaptation mainstreaming approach could be applied in water management institutions such as water planning and EIA. In addition, the book offers a clear explanation of the challenges of adaptation to the existing water-related legal framework from a theoretical perspective, and provides theoretical and practical recommendations.

Winner of the Scientific & Medical Network Book Prize 2019! In Gaia, Psyche and Deep Ecology: Navigating Climate Change in the Anthropocene, Andrew Fellows uniquely connects Earth systems, Jungian and philosophical approaches to the existential threats that we face today. He elucidates the psychological basis of our dysfunctional relationship with nature, thereby offering a coherent framework for transforming this in our personal and professional lives. Demonstrating the imperative for new ideas that transcend the status quo, Fellows tackles unprecedented 21st century challenges such as climate change through his interdisciplinary approach. Fellows proposes a worldview, informed by depth psychology, which radically contradicts the prevailing shibboleths of unlimited economic growth, dominion over outer nature and negation of our inner nature. To accommodate a broad readership, he first introduces the Anthropocene and sufficient basics of systems dynamics, Gaia theory and analytical psychology before exploring the mind-matter conundrum. He then correlates the structure, dynamics, contents and pathology of Gaia and of psyche, critiques the Western Zeitgeist as midlife crisis and establishes parallels between deep ecology and psychological individuation. This ground-breaking synthesis of Gaia theory, analytical psychology and deep ecology reveals synergies which show how we can, and why we must, relinquish anthropocentrism in order to survive sustainably as equals in and with the natural world. Combining Jungian theory with other cutting-edge disciplines to inform, inspire and heal, this book is essential reading not only for Jungian analysts, students and scholars, but for all-including professionals in Earth systems science, environmental philosophy and ecopsychology-who realise that 'business as usual' is no longer an option.

This Handbook examines the regulatory, social, financial, and technological issues pertaining to energy communities in smart cities. Evidencing the emergence of new imperatives at the intersection of sustainability, resilience, innovation, and legal issues, energy communities embody the thrust of the user-centred digital transformation our societies are subjected to today. By bridging the energy communities’ debate with smart cities research, this Handbook positions itself at the heart of the conversation on energy sustainability, climate action, and ‘just transition’. Drawing on contributions from across the globe, this book offers both a birds-eye and a detailed inter- and multidisciplinary insight into the emergence of energy communities and their evolution in the smart city context. Technological and regulatory aspects of this transition are explored from a variety of conceptual and empirical perspectives. Case studies evidencing developments in the Global South and the Global North embellish the conversation. Questions of climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, emissions’ reduction, and corresponding policy frameworks are discussed. Dedicated to all those interested in climate action, energy transition, sustainable development, and smart cities, this Handbook will be of interest to policymakers, lawyers, energy and urban experts, researchers, and students.

This volume aims to develop a framework for disaster and climate risk resilient livelihood system in Bangladesh using a policy oriented approach. It highlights the possible impacts of climate change on groundwater based irrigation in the country. Climate change is one of biggest challenges to society. It can lead to serious impacts on production, life and environment on a global scale. Higher temperatures and sea level rise will cause flooding and water salinity problems which will bring about negative effects on agriculture and high risks to industry and socio-economic systems in the future. Climate change will lead to many changes in global development and security especially energy, water, food, society, job, diplomacy, culture, economy and trade. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines climate change as: "Any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity." Global climate change has emerged as a key issue in both political and economic arenas. It is an increasingly questioned phenomenon, and progressive national governments around the world have started taking action to respond to these environmental concerns.

Climate change is one of the most widely debated and worrisome topics of our time. As environmental changes become more prevalent, there has been evidence to suggest that there is a correlation between the environment and a substantial increase of infectious diseases and viruses around the globe. Examining the Role of Environmental Change on Emerging Infectious Diseases and Pandemics investigates the impact of climate change in relation to the emergence and spread of global diseases. Highlighting epidemiological factors and policies to govern epidemics and pandemics, this publication is a critical reference source for medical professionals, students, environmental scientists, advocates, policy makers, academics, and researchers.

How it is that humanity has brought itself, along with most other species, to the brink of extinction? In the Gilgamesh Gene Revisited, Russell-Jones provides a time-line analysis of man’s relationship with the natural world that stretches back deep into pre-history and illuminates the origins of many of our most cherished fables, myths and religious creeds, which provide our belief systems governing our world and political thinking today. Extinction is avoidable but do we, as sentient beings, possess the ability to change the way we think? This question is fundamental to the survival of the human species. In this second edition, Dr Robin Russell-Jones expands on his vision of the human condition, providing new findings to many of our most abiding mysteries, including the origin of King Arthur and the Round Table, the Holy Grail and the meaning of the Trinity. Gilgamesh was a vainglorious king who ruled the city of Uruk in Ancient Mesopotamia, allegedly around 2750 BC. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest narrative in existence, and it contains the blueprint for much of our environmentally destructive behaviour today. This implacable pursuit of fame and fortune, at the expense of the natural world, has proven so successful that plundering the Earth’s resources has become hard-wired into our thinking: hence the Gilgamesh Gene. Furthermore this quest for immortality is now regarded as a “natural� part of the human condition: whilst in reality it is deeply deviant, and contains the seeds of our own destruction. As mankind rushes head-long into the Anthropocene, there is some hope as the author explains the steps we need to take to avert disaster: limiting human numbers; getting away from ever-expanding GDP as the only definition of progress; and urgently implementing the Global Carbon Incentive Fund as the most equitable, efficient and effective way of putting a price on carbon emissions globally.

This volume analyzes the global challenges of food security, land use changes, and climate change impacts on food production in order to recommend sustainable development policies, anticipate future food services and demands, and identify the economic benefits and trade-offs of meeting food security demands and achieving climate change mitigation objectives. The key points of analysis that form the conclusions of this book are based on measuring the quantity and quality of land and water resources, and the rate of use of sustainable management of these resources in the context of socio-economic factors, including food security, poverty, and climate change impacts. In six parts, readers will learn about these crucial dimensions of the affects of climate change on food security, and will gain a better understanding of how to assess the trade-offs when combating multiple climate change challenges and how to develop sustainable solutions to these problems. The book presents multidimensional perspectives from expert contributors, offering holistic and strategic approaches to link knowledge on climate change and food security with action in the form of policy recommendations, with a focus on sociological and socio-economic components of climate change impacts. The intended audience of the book includes students and researchers engaged in climate change and food security issues, NGOs, and policy makers.

Climate change is as much a cultural phenomenon as it is a natural one. This book is about those cultural patterns that surround our perception of the environmental crisis and which are embodied in the narratives told by climate change advocates. It investigates the themes and motifs in those narratives through the use of narrative theory and cultural sociology. Developing a framework for cultural narrative analysis, Climate Change and Storytelling draws on qualitative interviews with stakeholders, activists and politicians in the USA and Germany to identify motifs and the relationships between heroes, villains and victims, as told by the messengers of the narrative. This book will provide academics and practitioners with insights into the structure of climate change communication among climate advocates and the cultural fabric that informs it.

The ongoing global climate change triggered by greenhouse gas growth has had a significant effect on the microbial dynamics of plants and soils. This volume explores the various microbial responses of plants and soils caused directly or indirectly by climate change resulting from rising greenhouse gases and other factors. The book considers the rapidly changing environment and the important role of microbiomes in restoring soil and plant health and in creating sustainable approaches. It discusses the adaptation and mitigation of plants and soils, specifically addressing such topics as biogeochemical processes, antimicrobial resistance, the dynamics of bacteria and fungus in extreme environments, bacterial siderophores for sustainability, and more. The volume also looks at edaphic and regeneration performance of tree species in the temperate forests.

There is widespread consensus in the international scientific community that climate change is happening and that abrupt and irreversible impacts are already set in motion. What part does education have to play in helping alleviate rampant climate change and in mitigating its worst effects? In this volume, contributors review and reflect upon social learning from and within their fields of educational expertise in response to the concerns over climate change. They address the contributions the field is currently making to help preempt and mitigate the environmental and social impacts of climate change, as well as how it will continue to respond to the ever changing climate situation. With a special foreword by Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town.

Climate Change Law and Policy in the Middle East and North AfricaRegion provides an in-depth and authoritative examination of the guiding principles of climate change law and policy in the MENA region. This volume introduces readers to the latest developments in the regulation of climate change across the region, including the applicable legislation, institutions, and key legal innovations in climate change financing, infrastructure development, and education. It outlines participatory and bottom-up legal strategies-focusing on transparency, accountability, gender justice, and other human rights safeguards-needed to achieve greater coherence and coordination in the design, approval, financing, and implementation of climate response projects across the region. With contributions from a range of experts in the field, the collection reflects on how MENA countries can advance existing national strategies around climate change, green economy, and low carbon futures through clear and comprehensive legislation. Taking an international and comparative approach, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners who work in the areas of climate change, environmental law and policy, and sustainable development, particularly in relation to the MENA region.

This book examines the development of bilateral energy relations between China and the two oil-rich countries, Kazakhstan and Russia. Challenging conventional assumptions about energy politics and China's global quest for oil, this book examines the interplay of politics and sociocultural contexts. It shows how energy resources become ideas and how these ideas are mobilized in the realm of international relations. China's relations with Kazakhstan and Russia are simultaneously enabled and constrained by the discursive politics of oil. It is argued that to build collaborative and constructive energy relations with China, its partners in Kazakhstan, Russia, and elsewhere must consider not only the material realities of China's energy industry and the institutional settings of China's energy policy but also the multiple symbolic meanings that energy resources and, particularly, oil acquire in China. China's Energy Security and Relations with Petrostates offers a nuanced understanding of China's bilateral energy relations with Kazakhstan and Russia, raising essential questions about the social logic of international energy politics. It will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, energy security, Chinese and post-Soviet studies, along with researchers working in the fields of energy policy and environmental sustainability.

This book explores a range of plausible futures for environmental law in the new era of the Earth's history: the Anthropocene. The book discusses multiple contemporary and future challenges facing the planet and humanity. It examines the relationship between environmental law and the Anthropocene at governance scales from the global to the local. The breadth of issues and jurisdictions covered by the book, its forward-looking nature, and the unique generational perspective of the contributing authors means that this publication appeals to a wide audience from specialist academics and policy-makers to a broader lay readership.

Climate Change Impacts on Soil Processes and Ecosystem Properties, Volume 35, presents current and emerging soil science research in the areas of soil processes and climate change, while also evaluating future research needs. The book combines the five areas of soil science (microbiology, physics, fertility, pedology and chemistry) to give a comprehensive assessment. This integration of topics is rarely done in a single publication due to the disciplinary nature of the soil science areas. Users will find it to be a comprehensive resource on the topic.

This book provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of the diverse aspects of climate change in South Asia. The region, home to almost 4% of the world's population, is under serious threat from climatic disasters. The volume underscores the urgency of addressing cataclysmic events related to climate change and their ramifications on the economy, agriculture and livelihoods of the region. The book discusses the reasons causing climate change as well as highlights normative and ethical considerations involved in the battle against climate change. With case studies from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, it explores issues such as extreme climatic events; energy use, fossil fuels, non-renewable resources and carbon dioxide emission in South Asia; internal migration and climate refugees; the ethical dilemma of sustainable development; technological advancements for extreme weather forecast; and responses to climate change in South Asia. Highlighting the need for striking a balance between developmental imperatives and environmental sustainability, the chapters also show the North-South divide in the research agenda and policies on climate change and the global politics that underlie climate policies. The volume juxtaposes a scientific analysis of factors responsible for climate change with an analysis of the human cost of climate change from the perspective of social sciences. It discusses the challenges faced by developing countries while also offering recommendations and solutions. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of climate studies, geography, public policy and governance, sustainable development, development studies, environmental studies, political studies, international relations, political economy, economics and sociology. It will also be useful to practitioners, thinktanks, policymakers and civil society organisations working on environmental management.

Mountain regions occupy about a quarter of the global terrestrial land surface and provide goods and services to more than half the humanity. Global environmental change threatens the integrity of these systems and their ability to provide the goods and services upon which humanity has come to depend. This book gives an overview of the state of research in fields pertaining to the detection, understanding and prediction of global change impacts in mountain regions. More than 60 contributions from paleoclimatology, cryospheric research, hydrology, ecology, and development studies are compiled in this volume, each with an outlook on future research directions.

This book provides an analysis of the recent governance of the Amazon in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia with a particular focus on deforestation processes, demonstrating that current policies and political and socioeconomic dynamics in the four countries are risking the forest's resilience. The authors examine and compare Amazonian politics and policies under different administrations, concentrating on the main actors, policies and dynamics that have affected the region, as well as on the institutional and political environment in which deforestation processes were embedded in different periods. Essentially, the book makes an analytical contribution towards a better understanding of the political, economic and social challenges confronting conservation policy in the Amazonian countries. Climate Change and Biodiversity Governance in the Amazon: At the Edge of Ecological Collapse? is essential reading for students and researchers in the fields of environmental studies and sustainability, Latin American studies, political science and international relations, as well as for policymakers and practitioners working in conservation and development.

This book provides standards and guidelines for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and removals in smallholder agricultural systems and comparing options for climate change mitigation based on emission reductions and livelihood trade-offs. Globally, agriculture is directly responsible for about 11% of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and induces an additional 17% through land use change, mostly in developing countries. Farms in the developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are predominately managed by smallholders, with 80% of land holdings smaller than ten hectares. However, little to no information exists on greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potentials in smallholder agriculture. Greenhouse gas measurements in agriculture are expensive, time consuming, and error prone, challenges only exacerbated by the heterogeneity of smallholder systems and landscapes. Concerns over methodological rigor, measurement costs, and the diversity of approaches, coupled with the demand for robust information suggest it is germane for the scientific community to establish standards of measurements for quantifying GHG emissions from smallholder agriculture. Standard guidelines for use by scientists, development organizations will help generate reliable data on emissions baselines and allow rigorous comparisons of mitigation options. The guidelines described in this book, developed by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) and partners, are intended to inform anyone conducting field measurements of agricultural greenhouse gas sources and sinks, especially to develop IPCC Tier 2 emission factors or to compare mitigation options in smallholder systems.

An astounding cultural shift took place 150 years ago. Good science, hard work, and innovation propelled humanity into a world of convenience, comfort, and health that kings of old could never have imagined. It also cast a long shadow. Today, we stand at a cross-road. Will we continue to limit ourselves to 19th century fossil fuel inefficiencies and pollution, thereby denying future generations the affluence we enjoy? Or will we gather the courage to move into a cleaner, safer more abundant solar powered world? Using historical anecdotes as well as modern story-telling and basic science, this book describes how humans are changing the chemistry of our air and oceans. The great life-giving cycles that maintain a livable environment are being altered, causing wide range of consequences. Serious as the situation is, it is also an opportunity. Very real solutions, both technological and economic are addressed. There is a promising future that awaits if we, as a species, are willing to take on the challenges of growth and change.

'A remarkably hopeful and useful book...The climate crisis leaves us no choice but to build a new world and as Sanderson makes clear, we are capable of making it a better one than the dirty and dangerous planet we’ve come to take for granted.' Bill McKibben, Observer book of the week We depend on a handful of metals and rare earths to power our phones and computers. Increasingly, we rely on them to power our cars and our homes. Whoever controls these finite commodities will become rich beyond imagining. Sanderson journeys to meet the characters, companies, and nations scrambling for the new resources, linking remote mines in the Congo and Chile’s Atacama Desert to giant Chinese battery factories, shadowy commodity traders, secretive billionaires, a new generation of scientists attempting to solve the dilemma of a ‘greener’ world.